- Paul Corcoran
- Sat, Mar 17 2018
It may have been a scrappy affair at times but Galway United eventually ran out 3-1 winners against Cabinteely on Friday night with a brace from Danny Furlong and a stunning effort from Conor Barry sealing the points for The Tribesmen.
United managed to push forward early on and won a corner with the ball eventually falling to Stephen Walsh’s feet. The defender found his centre back partner Maurice Nugent in the box and the youngster’s header was just inches away from putting his side in the lead.
Galway had another excellent chance minutes later after a great passing movement. Carlton Ubaezuonu played a nice pass to Eoin McCormack who slipped an excellent through ball into Danny Furlong, the striker, who started the game with four goals to his name so far this season, played in Conor Barry but the midfielder dragged his shot wide of the goal.
Shane Keegan’s men began to dominate the game and Ryan Connolly got in on the action to set up another gilt edged chance for the West of Ireland side. The Galway captain toed a ball up and over the defence onto Furlong’s foot but the striker hit the volley directly at Stephen McGuinness.
The game took a scrappy turn with poor touches and poor passing aplenty by both teams but late on in the first half Galway United took the lead through their star striker Danny Furlong.
It was Conor Barry who worked tirelessly to play the former Wexford man in almost being dispossessed by the Cabinteely defence several times but the midfielder was strong enough to hold off the challenge and threaded an excellent ball through to Furlong who times his run perfectly to slot the ball into the far corner of Stephen McGuinness’ net for his fifth of the season.
Carlton Ubaezuonu turned on his skill early in the second half. Conor Earley struggled to deal with the young winger. He took the ball to the base line and beat the defender but his final ball was played low to nobody in the box leaving United short of doubling their lead.
Just on the hour mark Conor Barry capped off an excellent performance with a goal of his own after Ubaezuonu played a pass to the midfielder. The former Athlone Town player took the ball with his back to the goal, flicked it up and volleyed on the turn smashing the ball into McGuinness’ net from outside the box.
Cabinteely hadn’t scored in their opening two games before Friday night and they must have been wondering if they ever would after missing two clear chances one after the other.
Kieran ‘Marty’ Waters attempted a long range lob of Tadhg Ryan who was well off his line but the ‘keeper just got back to punch the ball off the crossbar. Substitute Paul Fox ran in to finish into the vacant net with Ryan scrambling to get up off the ground but his effort struck the crossbar giving Stephen Walsh the chance to clear the ball from danger.
In just a minute the ball was up the other end of the field and Karl Byrne was caught out by Danny Furlong who stripped the defender of the ball and smashed the ball home for his second of the game with a lovely finish.
Late in the game Cabo had another chance to break their goal scoring duck for the season. It was Waters again with the chance as the Galway defence scrambled to keep their clean sheet. The ball beat Ryan but Maurice Nugent came to his goalkeeper’s aid to clear the ball off the line.
With just minutes to go Cabinteely got their consolation to take back to Stradbrook when the Galway defence sloppily let Cabo into the box once again. This time Joe Doyle slotted home for the away side to give them their first goal of the season.
Galway United: Tadhg Ryan; Gary Shanahan (Aaron Conway, 76), Stephen Walsh, Maurice Nugent, Marc Ludden; Ryan Connolly, Alex Byrne, Conor Barry, Carlton Ubaezuonu (Stephen Kenny, 72), Eoin McCormack, Danny Furlong (Conor Layng, 71).
Subs not used: Conor Gleeson (gk), Conor Melody, Gary Kinneen, Alan Murphy.
Booked: Gary Shanahan (43), Ryan Connolly (85).
Cabinteely: Stephen McGuinness; Karly Byrne (Eoghan Morgan, 71), Conor Keeley (Paul Fox, 54), Kevin Knight, Conor Earley; Joe Doyle, Jack Watson, Keith Dalton, Kieran ‘Marty’ Waters; Stephen Ball (Kaleem Simon, 70), Christian Lotefa.
Subs not used: Finn McGowan (gk), Dean Casey, Aaron Robinson, Sean Bregazzi.
Booked: Christian Lotefa (30, 90), Paul Fox (58).
Referee: Garvin Taggart
Attendance: 725
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Conor Barry
